WDTPRS 3 Feb: St. Blaise – life is dangerous business

8 Responses to WDTPRS 3 Feb: St. Blaise – life is dangerous business

1. yatzer says:

   3 February 2011 at 5:31 pm

   This may be the wrong place to ask, but I don’t know how else: Given that this life is a vale of tears, how is it a good thing to bring more children into it? I hear this rather often and don’t know how to respond.
2. lombizani says:

   3 February 2011 at 6:43 pm

   Not-so-good news from Brazil, Father. Actually a scandal is currently taking place with the support of a Catholic bishop.

   We found out that the Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Maria in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul is going to be used for the episcopal “ordination” of an Anglican “priest”.

   When questioned about the matter, Most Rev. Bishop Rubert (the diocesan bishop) spoke some disturbing words, specially in these times of Anglicanorum Coetibus. The original is here (Portuguese), but I took the liberty of translating (roughly) the bishop’s letter (the emphasis is of the original):

   Esteemed XXXXX,

   Peace and the Good!

   I received and thank you for your e-mail which requires some clarifications:

   1st) By request of leaders of the Anglican Church we have lended the space of the Diocesan Cathedral for the ceremony of episcopal ordination of the future Coadjutor Bishop of the Anglican Church, for the Anglican Cathedral of the Mediator is too small for the event.

   2nd) In Santa Maria we have a good relationship with the Ecumenical Churches, especially with the Anglican brothers. For years we have carried out the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

   3rd) The ecumenical cults are carried out alternately at various temples.

   4th) We have the ecumenical organization: Ecumenical Fraternity of Christian Churches (FEIC) which assembles monthly to pray, dialogue and coordinate the ecumenical initiatives.

   5th) In the ecumenical dialogue each religious confession respects the differences, keeps his faith tradition and seeks to know and love the brother of another belief. Many barriers and prejudices came down already.

   We know the ecumenical path is slow and fruit of the action of the Holy Spirit.

   Esteemed friend and brother: I would like to have you as one more brother who seeks christian unity to carry out Jesus’ dream: “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee. That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17, 21).

   Brotherly “In caritate exemplum”:

   + Hélio Adelar Rubert
3. The Cobbler says:

   3 February 2011 at 8:44 pm

   Ah, so “subsidiarity” does not so much mean that broader or more faroff powers shouldn’t deal with things as that people in an immediate position (im-med-iate, without middle, not necessarily fastest in time) to deal with something ought to aid, assist, support, help and protect? Or is this just an etymological coincidence? (I do think there is an unnecessary and somewhat dangerous rush to bring everything to the highest power available, so I’m not begrudging the notion that we should slow down and deal with things on more of a man-to-man basis, so to speak, but I find it interesting that the word itself appears related to one that simply refers to aid.)

   I’d also be interested in hearing your thoughts on yatzer’s question, Father. I can say personally when I’ve wondered about the matter it’s because I was too frustrated with my own life — a sort of vague despair projected down onto hypothetical children, pretty much, and boy am I glad we’re given the grace to overcome temptations such as despair! But I wouldn’t mind knowing a more formal answer.
4. Suburbanbanshee says:

   3 February 2011 at 10:01 pm

   You may as well ask: given that flowers will always wither and die, how can it be a good thing to plant bulbs and annuals and perennials? But nobody ever sits around anguishing about how all the tulips and daffodils of spring are just dead flowers dancing, except maybe some very morbid poets. Nobody ever stands over the gardener who’s putting bulbs in, shouting, “Plant torturer!”
5. Joan M says:

   4 February 2011 at 5:42 am

   “Given that this life is a vale of tears, how is it a good thing to bring more children into it?” Those that ask this have forgotten that the point of this life is not happiness on earth, but to reach Heaven. If we learn to treat this vale of tears correctly it will assist us in arriving in Heaven.
6. green fiddler says:

   4 February 2011 at 9:25 am

   God created us in His image. “Be fruitful and multiply.” Faithful parents in a consecrated marriage are blessed with children and teach them to pick up life’s crosses to follow Jesus.
   Our world is a vale of tears because of original sin and our own individual sins that hurt others. Our Lord did not promise that our journey here would be easy, but He did promise always to be with us.
7. Brooklyn says:

   4 February 2011 at 9:27 am

   Thank you, Joan M. Excellent answer!! If the purpose of life is to avoid suffering, as is believed in our secular world, then none of us stand a chance, because we all suffer, if not personally, then certainly by seeing the tremendous suffering in this world. We need to go back to the Baltimore Catechism:

   Q. Why did God make you?
   A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.

   An oldy, but a goody!

   Why would anyone think it is a good thing to deprive a child of this? Be careful of this kind of this kind of thinking – it doesn’t come from God!
8. Christopher Mc Camley says:

   4 February 2011 at 3:26 pm

   Some of you may enjoy my daughter, Mary’s take on St Blaise. She’s only five. http://mccamley.org/blog/st-blaise